Blurb:

Eighteen-year-old Nephi Norton goes to Falcon Pointe University to find himself. Away from his conservative family, he hopes to discover if his attraction to men is the real deal. Encouraged to be someone a little different, he starts using his middle name. “Rafe” quickly makes friends, some of whom use a paddle to dispense caring discipline, and he lives it up—until midterms hit and he realizes he’s flunking statistics class.

When Scotland native Éigneachán Jackson Levlin offers to help, Rafe is eager to accept—not only because Levlin is a psychologist, but also because he’s out and proud and hot as hell.

As their relationship heats up, Rafe decides to spend one last Christmas with his family before he tells them. When his little sister outs him to his siblings, they turn out to be fully supportive, and he takes heart—until he introduces Levlin to his father, who brutally dismisses both of them. Now Rafe must come to peace with his father’s rejection or risk losing Levlin—and all he has become at Falcon Pointe—forever.

The Guy in the Mirror

Who am I is one of the questions that comes up in my new book Becoming Rafe which will be out on May 23rd. It’s a question we ask ourselves often. Especially when we’re 18 and just heading out into the world.

Rafe is one person around his family –Nephi Norton, good boy. But inside he feels like there’s someone different there, someone he wants to know. So when he arrives at Falcon Pointe University, far from home, that is his goal. To find out who he is.

As people, we sometimes think we have to change the inside person first, but actually changing the person we are on the outside can help us to change who we are inside. And that’s what Rafe decides to do. In this excerpt, you get to see how he feels seeing himself as Rafe as opposed to Nephi.

Excerpt

“What do you think?” Finn asked on Sunday afternoon, his eyes bright. Nephi—or as he should start thinking of himself, Rafe—stared at his reflection. It was surprising and infinitely good. No longer a clean-cut Mormon boy, Rafe looked… fun and… sexy, which was a strange thing to think about himself. On Saturday he got his hair done and his ear pierced. Which hurt like hell. He didn’t care what other people said. He also bought several pairs of jeans from a thrift shop, most of them in pretty good shape, and all of them with strategic tears already. That morning he’d finally decided he wanted a dragon tat on his shoulder. He’d always had a deep desire to own a dragon. With a tattoo he would always have one.

As it turned out, tattoos hurt like hell too. If Finn hadn’t gone with him, he probably would have chickened out after the first touch of the needle. But he stayed where he was, with his eyes closed, as the artist turned his left shoulder into a work of art. And it was an art piece. It was still covered by the bandage, but he’d seen it right after the artist completed it, and it was better than he had ever dreamed. A deep green European dragon curled around his upper arm, its head peaking over the top of his shoulder. “Wicked,” he murmured as he looked in the mirror.

His hair, which had been a straight, boring brown, was now shaved close on the sides and coiffed in a fauxhawk at the top. The stylist had dyed some patches of hair white and then put red over everything. So, while his brown hair had an overall cast of reddish brown, the bright red patches stood out.

The stud in his right ear was simple, which worked for him. His ear wasn’t as puffy as the day before. It was still sore, but it should be back to normal soon. He lifted up his phone, took a selfie, and, with a few clicks of his screen, he sent it to Kelli.

Her response wouldn’t come until Monday morning, as they weren’t allowed to use their cell phones on Sundays at home. Part of him wondered if he should send it to Bastien as well, but he elected not to. Bastien didn’t look much different than he probably had looked at his parents’ house. He had just changed his name.

But Rafe felt good about the strange guy in the mirror.

“Cool,” Finn said, watching him. “Let’s go get some food. And don’t forget to walk with a swagger.”

“What the hell is a swagger, anyway?” Rafe asked as he pulled on a pair of sneakers. “It always makes me think of a guy who’s been in the saddle too long.”

Suddenly people noticed him when he walked through the halls of the dorm. Drawing their eyes felt weird. And really, really good.

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About the Author

Thianna Durston is a writer by day and supernova by night. Or at least that’s what the faeries tell her. And who is she to deny those pesky cough lovely little creatures?

She lives in the Pacific Northwest, though her heart belongs elsewhere. In the meantime, until she can return to the place she calls home, she happily lives in a city that still thinks it’s a small town. Thankfully, it has given her muse lots of amusing places to start a story.

Farewell Giveaway
I have a number of paperbacks, most of which are signed, to giveaway. Over the between now (11 Mar 2017) and 31 Mar 2017, every comment on the blog (this post and all other new posts), will be entered to win 1 of these paperbacks. There are also some misc swag items, so there will be a few packs of these to give away as well.

Thank you so much for your support over the last 4 years. Prism will be closing its doors on 1 April 2017. All content will remain available, but no new content will appear after 31 Mar 2017. As such all request forms have been turned off. Again Thank you,